Warhead

ABSTRACT

A warhead which is adapted to be launched in a predetermined axial direction includes a support structure having a plurality of walls which extend in a direction parallel to the predetermined axial direction. The support structure forms a plurality of closed chambers which are laterally spaced apart from each other and are elongated in the axial direction. A high explosive is contained within the structure cavities.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to and claims priority from co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/562,732 filed on Nov. 22, 2011 by inventor Michael A. Minnicino III titled “Reinforcement of Dense High-Explosives for Gun-Launch Applications” which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety including all attachments, appendices and figures filed with U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/562,732.

GOVERNMENT INTEREST

The invention described herein may be manufactured, used, and licensed by or for the United States Government.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

I. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to items requiring structural support and geometric alignment when encapsulated in weak or compliant materials and, more particularly, to warheads subjected to large axial accelerations during gun launch.

II. Description of Related Art

Many types of warheads are gun launched, for example a warhead can be fired in a predetermined axial direction and elevation by a gun toward a target. A low collateral damage munition, where the munition's warhead has a significantly reduced lethality footprint compared to traditional warheads, is desirable in many of today's conflict environments. Warheads can be subject to large axial accelerations during gun launch.

Modern low collateral damage munition designs typically feature either a thin thin metallic or a polymer composite warhead outer shell, oftentimes in conjunction with a dense high explosive fill. The use of the thin metallic or polymer composite warhead outer shell and/or dense high explosives, however, creates significant design, performance, and safety issues during gun launch.

For example, in order to safely fire the gun, the warhead outer shell, regardless if it is a overly thin metal or polymer composite material, must exhibit sufficient structural integrity to withstand not only the gun launch loads incurred when the munition is fired, but also those gun launch loads in conjunction with the pressure loading from the dense high explosive fill due to the Poisson effect.

However, simply increasing the strength of the warhead outer shell alone creates additional problems. If the burst strength of the outer shell is too large, the explosive blast at the target is largely contained within the warhead thus reducing its effectiveness. Specifically, the performance of the low collateral damage warhead in the vincinity of the target is strongly influenced by the burst strength of the warhead outer shell. Conversely, if the burst strength is too weak, the munition structurally fails in bore during the gun launch due to the loading created by the Poisson effect and a serious safety hazard results. Consequently, the goal is to design the outer shell strength of the warhead such that the warhead maintains its structural integrity during launch, but fails in the vicinity of the target during the explosive blast.

One previously known approach for warhead design has been to use thick plates or baffles aligned in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the gun launch axis are then supported within the warhead either by the warhead outer shell or secondary structure, i.e. centered column support, at spaced axial intervals and the space between the baffles is then filled with a dense high explosive. The baffles support the dense high explosive during gun launch and reduce the loading due to the Poisson effect. In this fashion, the (typically planar) surfaces of the baffles are normal to the detonation wave created during the explosive blast. As such, these baffles may disadvantageously reduce the detonation propagation from one high explosive cavity to the neighboring high explosive volume across the baffle support structure. In addition to the concern of detonation propagation, a primary disadvantage of this approach, however, is that the overall amount of explosive is reduced, thus reducing the overall effectiveness of the warhead. Additionally, the supporting baffle structure is likely to unintentionally add significant lethality to the low collateral warhead.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The present invention provides a warhead design of the type that is gun launched which overcomes the above mentioned disadvantages of the previously known warheads.

In brief, the warhead of the present invention provides a support structure having a plurality of walls which extend in a direction parallel to the axial launch direction of the warhead. These walls form a plurality of axially elongated chambers that are spaced apart but laterally adjacent each other. Support structures described herein may be used to provide supplemental internal support in explosive structures and/or maintain geometric alignment of encapsulated explosive fill.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the support structure is a honeycomb so that each elongated chamber is hexagonal in cross-sectional shape. The sidewall length of each honeycomb side, furthermore, is relatively small, e.g. one quarter of an inch to one half of an inch.

The structure itself is constructed of any suitable structural material, such as a polyamide or aluminum. The entire structure is then substantially filled with a dense high explosive to form the warhead.

In operation, the structure supports the dense high explosive against deformation during launch and thus maintains the integrity of the warhead. The structure does this through a combination of load transfer between the dense high explosive and the support structure and confinement of the high explosive by the support structure. Upon detonation, the detonation wave, which travels in a direction parallel to the walls of the support structure, is efficiently conveyed to the target while simultaneously minimizing collateral damage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

A better understanding of the present invention will be had upon reference to the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein like reference characters refer to like parts throughout the several views, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view illustrating a warhead;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary elevational view illustrating the support structure for the warhead; and

FIG. 3 is a side view illustrating the support structure during an explosive fill of the support structure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

With reference first to FIG. 1, an exemplary warhead 10 is shown having both a front end 12 and a base end 14. The warhead 10 is adapted to be gun launched along a launch axis 16 from a gun toward the target.

With reference now to FIGS. 1 and 3, the warhead 10 includes a support structure 18 positioned within a tubular and cylindrical outer wall 24 of the warhead 10. The support structure includes a plurality of chamber (cell) walls 20 which, together, form a plurality of chambers 22 each of which is elongated in the direction of the launch axis 16. Each chamber 22, furthermore, is a closed chamber and thus isolated from its adjacent chambers 22 by the chamber (cell) wall 20.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the support structure is a honeycomb structure that includes a plurality of adjacent but laterally separated, elongated chambers that are hexagonal in cross-sectional shape. Thus, in certain embodiments the chambers are each hexagonal in shape in cross section perpendicular to the axial launch direction. In other embodiments, the chambers are each circular, rectangular, square or other polygonal in shape in cross section perpendicular to the axial launch direction. The support structure may be defined as a plurality of adjacent chambers 22 that are longitudinally elongated and parallel to the launch axis 16 of the warhead 10 to provide a plurality of parallel cells defined by intersecting internal walls and arranged in vertical rows. Furthermore, within the interior of the warhead 10, each sidewall 20 forms a side wall of two different and adjacent chambers 22.

As best shown in FIG. 1, the support structure 18 preferably extends along the entire length of the warhead 10 so that each chamber 22 has an axial length relative to the launch axis 16 of the length of the warhead 10. Any suitable lightweight but stiff and strong structural material, such as a plastic, such as a polyamide, or a metal, such as aluminum, may be used to form the support structure 18.

Although the support structure 18 is illustrated in the drawing as honeycomb in shape in which each interior chamber 22 is hexagonal and substantially identical in size to the other interior chambers 22, other shapes for the chambers 22 may be utilized. For example, the chambers 22 could alternatively be square or rectangular in shape, or triangular in shape, or a have a polygonal cross sectional shape, for example a parallelogram, without deviation from the spirit or scope of the invention. Although the support structure 18 is illustrated in the drawing as honeycomb in shape in which each interior chamber 22 is of a closed cross-section, i.e. the boundary around the interior chamber forms a complete loop, open cross-sections for the support structure 18 may also be used.

Preferably, the cell sidewall length, l, of each chamber (cell) 20 of the support structure 18 is relatively small, e.g. about one quarter of an inch. However, the chamber (cell) axial length 20 of the support structure 18 may be varied as required in order to ensure side wall integrity during the launch and/or design criteria relative to the minimization of collateral damage.

In order to form the warhead, the support structure 18 is filled using a melt-cast approach where the dense high explosive is heated until liquefied and is poured 26 (FIG. 3) into each chamber 22 and allowed to solidify upon cooling. Preferably, each chamber 22 in the support structure 18 is completely filled with the high explosive using the above mentioned technique.

In operation, the support structure 18 supports the high explosive during the gun launch and prevents collapse of the warhead, and possible detonation, during gun launch. Since the support structure 18 is constructed of a lightweight material, it does not add lethality to the warhead and enables low collateral damage warhead designs without compromising weapon effectiveness.

A still further advantage of the warhead of the present invention is that the thickness of the sidewalls 20 of the support structure 18 may be very thin walled while still maintaining the structural integrity of the structure 18. Since the sidewalls 20 of the support structure 18 are thin, the overall support structure 18 thus occupies relatively little payload volume thus maximizing the amount of high explosive that can be contained within the warhead 10.

A still further advantage of the warhead 10 of the present invention is that, since the structure sidewalls 20 extend in the launch direction 16, the plane of the support structure sidewalls 20 extends in a direction parallel to the detonation wave of the warhead. As such, the support structure 18 advantageously does not interfere with the detonation wave.

Having described my invention, many modifications thereto will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which it pertains without deviation from the spirit of the invention as defined by the scope of the appended claims. 

I claim:
 1. A warhead adapted to be launched in an axial launch direction comprising: a support structure having a plurality of walls which extend in a direction parallel to said axial launch direction and form a plurality of chambers which are laterally spaced apart from each other relative to said axial launch direction, an explosive which at least partially fills said chambers.
 2. The warhead as defined in claim 1 wherein said chambers are elongated in the axial launch direction.
 3. The warhead as defined in claim 1 wherein said chambers may be open, i.e. cell walls do not form a closed loop, or closed, i.e. cell walls form closed loops, or a combination thereof.
 4. The warhead as defined in claim 1 wherein said support structure separates adjacent chambers from each other.
 5. The warhead as defined in claim 1 wherein said support structure comprises a honeycomb.
 6. The warhead as defined in claim 1 wherein said chambers are each hexagonal in shape in cross section perpendicular to the axial launch direction.
 7. The warhead as defined in claim 5 wherein each chamber spaced inwardly from the outer periphery of said structure is substantially the same size in said cross section.
 8. The warhead as defined in claim 1 wherein said structure is constructed of a structural material that comprises a polyamide.
 9. The warhead as defined in claim 5 wherein the side length of each hexagonal chamber is substantially 0.125-0.500 inches.
 10. The warhead as defined in claim 1 wherein said explosive is a melt-cast high explosive.
 11. The warhead as defined in claim 1 wherein said structure is constructed of a structural material comprising aluminum or an aluminum alloy.
 12. An explosive device adapted to be launched comprising: a device having a launch axis a support structure having a plurality of walls which extend in a direction parallel to said axial launch direction and that form a plurality of chambers that extend longitudinally in the direction of the launch axis and that are separated and spaced apart from each other relative to said axial launch direction, an explosive which at least partially fills said chambers.
 13. The explosive device as defined in claim 12 wherein said chambers are each hexagonal in shape in cross section perpendicular to the axial launch direction.
 14. The explosive device as defined in claim 12 wherein said chambers are each rectangular in shape in cross section perpendicular to the axial launch direction.
 15. The explosive device as defined in claim 12 wherein said chambers are each rectangular in square in cross section perpendicular to the axial launch direction.
 16. The explosive device as defined in claim 12 wherein said chambers are each polygonal in shape in cross section perpendicular to the axial launch direction.
 17. The explosive device as defined in claim 12 wherein said chambers are each circular in shape in cross section perpendicular to the axial launch direction.
 18. The explosive device as defined in claim 12 wherein said chambers are each a parallelogram in shape in cross section perpendicular to the axial launch direction.
 19. The explosive device as defined in claim 12 wherein said explosive is a melt-cast high explosive.
 20. The explosive device as defined in claim 12 wherein said support structure is constructed of a structural material comprising aluminum or an aluminum alloy. 